Case Title: 1. Rethinking Grading Part 1

Element Title: Formative/Summative (3 of 16)

Assessments are assessments. Some are more robust. Some are more formal. But at the end of the day they are meant to help us get a handle on what someone knows and can do in a particular domain. If the primary purpose of an assessment is to diagnose and provide intervention, then it is formative in nature and should not be included in making a summative judgement about the student's level of achievement (especially if there is another opportunity to demonstrate achievement). There are usually some difference in the types of assessments we design for formative and summative purposes, but they could be identical. In the end it's what you do with them that defines them as formative or summative.

Formative assessment (including what we typically refer to as homework) is really about practice. As important as practice is, it is not the same thing as the "game". Is it connected? Sure. But, it's not the same. Allen Iverson had a 29 point per game scoring average in the post season, but one issue that was reaised from time to time was his engagement during practice. While one could argue that he might have been even better if he practiced harder, his game (a.k.a. summative performances) put him in the hall of fame.

In the second video, a skateboarder has 18 attempts to land a trick. How do you represent that in a grade book? Do you average all the attempts together?

Element Assessment:
Formative Assessment

Select the semester:

Fall
Spring
Summer

a
b
c
d

1. The person who first distinguished between formative and summative approaches was:

3. Which of the following is NOT a purpose for using formative assessments?

a. To learn which students are doing well and which are not doing so well.
b. To gather data about what has been taught well or not so well.
c. To predict future performance on a normed test.
d. To provide a basis for future instruction.

a
b
c
d

4. Formative assessment activities in the classroom used properly:

a. Provide a basis to rank order students.
b. Predict performance on other tests.
c. Help the teacher know what instruction has been effective.
d. Add to the precision and usefulness of grades.

a
b
c
d

5. The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives:

a. Orders outcomes according to how difficult it is to teach them.
b. Is based on learning hierarchies
c. Shows what is desirable
d. Is ordered by cognitive complexity

a
b
c
d

6. Suppose students in a class were asked to memorize the names of those who came over on the Mayflower. A test question then asked them to write down 10 of those names. At what level of the Taxonomy is the response likely to be?

a. Knowledge
b. Comprehension
c. Application
d. Analysis

a
b
c
d

7. Suppose the list contains occupations of the Mayflower passengers. Students are asked to write an essay that draws inferences about why certain occupations were present on the ship. At what level of the Taxonomy are the responses likely to fall?

a. Knowledge
b. Comprehension
c. Application
d. Analysis

a
b
c
d

8. Suppose the list of names of persons on the Mayflower also included their occupations. Students are asked to write an essay that draws inferences about why certain occupations are on the ship. That would represent what Depth of Knowledge?

a. DOK 1
b. DOK 2
c. DOK 3
d. DOK 4

How have you implemented formative assessment in the classroom?

What are the most significant barriers to doing formative assessment that you've encountered?